James Maxey
James Maxey lives in Chapel Hill, NC. After graduating from the Odyssey Fantasy Writers'
Workshop and Orson Scott Card's Writer's Boot Camp, James broke into the publishing world
in 2002 when he won a Phobos Award for his short story, "Empire of Dreams and Miracles." Phobos
Books later published James' debut novel, the cult-classic superhero tale Nobody Gets the
Girl. His short stories have since appeared in Asimov's and numerous anthologies. His
Bitterwood, which precedes Dragonforce, was published in 2007.

Dragonforge follows the events outlined in Bitterwood, though sufficient background is given for
Dragonforge to stand alone. Some time in the far future, after the presumed collapse of human society,
sentient dragons, who reproduce through a strict system of eugenics, rule the world and humans are largely
slaves. But Albekizan, the evil dragon tyrant is killed during a human rebellion and his son, the heir to
the dragon throne wishes to enact policies of human/dragon cooperation. However a number of forces including
the heir's own brush with power, an insane and murderous uncle, and a mad human prophet bent on annihilating
the dragon race are derailing this project. Meanwhile women technology-users endowed with ancient nanotechnology
fight it out for the freedom/control of the entire world.

Notwithstanding the numerous plot lines, James Maxey writes a coherent and engaging story, weaving numerous subplots
and multidimensional characters in an interesting and compelling manner. Characters are not static, shifting
their allegiances and associates, growing into or out of prejudices and behaviours, thus avoiding a purely
good-evil dichotomy. However, while I was entertained and the plot was compelling and well structured, the
story left me feeling underwhelmed in a number of ways.

My biggest problem with Dragonforge is that the dragons are basically humans in dragon suits, their
emotions, actions, societal structure, thought patterns, personal failures and successes are indistinguishable
from those of humans. Sure they can fly and are more powerful than puny humans, but in every other way
they ARE human -- a bit more of Cthulhu-like incomprehensibility and alienness to their behaviour would have
made them more interesting.

Furthermore, while the axiom that sufficiently advanced technology would appear no different than magic may be
true, I didn't see what the point was of explaining that the 'magic' employed derived from ancient
nanotechnology -- perhaps it adds the element of science fiction to what is otherwise a fantasy novel, perhaps
expanding the genre(s), but to what purpose? Perhaps further books in the series will elucidate this. Along
these lines, one of the two nanotechnology users deciding the fate of the world -- seemingly completely
independently of anything the dragons or rebellious humans are up to -- is a particularly unpleasant,
curmudgeonly, ugly and very 20th-century-like cigarette-smoking 'goddess' -- a character very much at odds
with the 'feel' of the rest of the plot line, almost anachronistic. Sure, the Ayesha-like (a.k.a. She Who
Must Be Obeyed) radiantly beautiful and all-powerful goddess has been done to death, but the character
of Jazz just grated on my nerves more than anything else.

While Maxey has forged an interesting and complex novel of a world shared by dragons and humans, the
inclusion of seemingly disparate elements and the anthropomorphism of the dragons mitigated by enjoyment
of an otherwise entertaining piece of fiction.

Georges Dodds is a research scientist whose interests lie predominantly in both English and French pre-1950 imaginative fiction. Besides reviews and articles at SFSite and in fanzines such as Argentus, Pulpdom and WARP, he has published peer-reviewed articles in fields ranging from folklore to water resource management. He is the creator and co-curator of The Ape-Man, His Kith and Kin a website exploring thematic precursors of Tarzan of the Apes, as well as works having possibly served as Edgar Rice Burroughs' documentary sources. The close to 100 e-texts include a number of first time translations from the French by himself and others. Georges is also the creator and curator of a website dedicated to William Murray Graydon (1864-1946), a prolific American-born author of boys' adventures. The website houses biographical, and bibliographical materials, as well as a score of novels, and over 100 short stories.